LilRoundHouse
Member
I need some input from those of you who have experience growing hops. Bit of an intro here, bear with me.
We've just completed construction on a 12'x48' passive solar greenhouse on our property that we'll be using to grow edibles during the fall, winter and spring:
It faces due south (to maximize solar absorption), and it works very well to that effect. So well, in fact, that it heats up WAAAAY too much in the summer to be useful for much of anything. I have vents, but they're not enough. I could add fans, but the whole idea here is to manage temperatures passively. I've looked into shade and aluminum cloth.
But today, I had an idea. What if I could grow hops up the clear/glazed side to create shade? I was already planning to plant a variety of hops in different locations around the farm this year.
Please note the large raised bed that runs around the entire south side of the greenhouse. It's knee deep and will be filled with quality soil come spring.
Basically, my plan would be to add something to the greenhouse that looks like this (the diagram only shows one, I would do this the length of the structure):
With the hope that come summer, the greenhouse would look like this (excuse the quick and dirty Photoshop):
So in my head, this works great. Hops seem perfect for this application because they grow big, fast, are brought down to harvest and get cut down to the ground in the winter (when we want all the sun in there we can get).
My questions for you experienced hop growers are as follows:
- Could this actually work at all?
- Any issues with having them grow up a slope? (it's not a 45 degree angle, but it's pretty close) I would be setting the twine up off the surface of the glazing so they still have air flow around them (also the land around here is super flat, we get good breezes constantly).
- How closely would I have to plant them to achieve maximum bushiness/light absorbtion without screwing up cone production?
- What aren't I thinking of here?
All input/ideas are welcome, and thanks in advance.
We've just completed construction on a 12'x48' passive solar greenhouse on our property that we'll be using to grow edibles during the fall, winter and spring:
It faces due south (to maximize solar absorption), and it works very well to that effect. So well, in fact, that it heats up WAAAAY too much in the summer to be useful for much of anything. I have vents, but they're not enough. I could add fans, but the whole idea here is to manage temperatures passively. I've looked into shade and aluminum cloth.
But today, I had an idea. What if I could grow hops up the clear/glazed side to create shade? I was already planning to plant a variety of hops in different locations around the farm this year.
Please note the large raised bed that runs around the entire south side of the greenhouse. It's knee deep and will be filled with quality soil come spring.
Basically, my plan would be to add something to the greenhouse that looks like this (the diagram only shows one, I would do this the length of the structure):
With the hope that come summer, the greenhouse would look like this (excuse the quick and dirty Photoshop):
So in my head, this works great. Hops seem perfect for this application because they grow big, fast, are brought down to harvest and get cut down to the ground in the winter (when we want all the sun in there we can get).
My questions for you experienced hop growers are as follows:
- Could this actually work at all?
- Any issues with having them grow up a slope? (it's not a 45 degree angle, but it's pretty close) I would be setting the twine up off the surface of the glazing so they still have air flow around them (also the land around here is super flat, we get good breezes constantly).
- How closely would I have to plant them to achieve maximum bushiness/light absorbtion without screwing up cone production?
- What aren't I thinking of here?
All input/ideas are welcome, and thanks in advance.